Hunter sat against the cold wall of the rock cave, nursing his shoulder. The bombardment outside had ceased for the moment. He looked over at Storm. Storm was sitting against the wall with most of his armor off. He’d wiped most of the blood off, but the cuts and bruises were still very visible. “You okay?” Hunter asked him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Storm replied. He took a rag and wiped the blood off the inside of his leg plates before putting them on again. Storm was the toughest person Hunter knew. He should have known that even a mortar round couldn’t keep Storm down.

“Yeah, we’re trapped in a cave along Iota Trail. Turret bombardment has stopped for the time. I imagine that they’ve got a lock on our position for when we decide to leave,” Max informed Commander Spike.

“How’s your squad?” Spike asked.

“We’re alright. Hunter has a blaster wound, and Storm got bloodied up pretty bad by a mortar. I think we’re fit to fight, though.” Max looked over at Storm and he gave him thumbs up signal. Storm yanked a rock out of his leg and signaled back. “Yep, we’re good. We’ll just finish treating those two and form a plan for our escape. How far are the MAP squads?”

“MAP squads are about even with your position. Kappa Squad is moving up, but they’ve been pinned down for a little bit. We might need to move the AT – RTs into position to take out the turrets before your squad can continue.”

“Don’t worry, Commander. We’ll find a way out of this.”

“Go ahead, but I don’t want anyone dieing.”

“We won’t. Iota, out.” Max turned to the rest of his squad. Flash was stabbing a syringe into one of Storm’s veins. “Alright. We need a plan to get out of here and get on the move.”

“I need to get my clothes on,” Storm said, pulling the needle out of his arm.

“Right,” said Flash, and wrote the dosage on Storm’s helmet, for quick future access. Storm grabbed his helmet and wiped the blood out of the inside before putting it back on again. A few minutes later, Storm was in full battle gear, though it was dented, punctured, and charred. Hunter quickly taped up his shoulder and stood at attention.

“Flash, see if you can snipe the turret gunner out of the seat. That would be the quickest temporary solution to our predicament,” Max ordered.

“Roger that, Lead,” Flash said, grabbing his sniper rifle and inching towards the cave entrance. He got down prone and angled his way around. Flash zoomed in on the closet turret that he could see. Within the crosshairs lay a single droid in the cockpit of an anti-armor turret. “Requesting permission to fire?”

“Fire at will,” Max commanded. Flash gently squeezed the trigger. A beam of plasma left the end of the DC-15x and traveled all the way to the turrets cockpit. The beam blasted a hole through the glass that surrounded the cockpit and went straight into the droid’s cranium. It sparked and then blew up.

BANG! Flash took his eye away from the scope and looked into the sky as and AA warhead flew across the horizon, headed for their position within the cave. He rolled into the cave just as the bomb made contact with the rock above the entrance to the cave. Ice and rock closed off the opening to the cave. Iota Squad was trapped inside the cave.

“Iota Squad!” Commander Spike yelled into the comm. system. “Come in, Iota Squad!” There was no reply. Dust and rocks seemed to float in midair around the cave in which Iota Squad had inhabited.

Down in the cave, Iota Squad heard nothing from the Commander. The rock was too think to transmit the signal through and was blocking their communications with the rest of the 501st. “Is everyone okay?” Max asked. A groan came from his left. Flash lay there on the ground rolling slightly. “Flash?”

“I’m fine,” Flash said. I’ve got a rock on my hand though. “Dang droids hit us with a warhead.” Max walked over to Flash and turned on his helmet spotlight; Hunter and Storm emerged from behind a wall of loose rocks.

“Fierfek! What happened to Flash?” Storm asked.

“His hand is smashed under a rock,” Max informed them. “Help me get him out.” Hunter ran over to Flash and pulled out his fusion cutter, which was hanging from his utility belt. He warmed it up and started cutting away at the rock. Ten minutes later, Flash was freed.

“Thanks, guys,” Flash told Iota Squad. “We need to find a way out of this rubble so we can get back to the real mission.”

“Right,” Max said. “I’ll bandage Flash’s hand up. Hunter and Storm can work on getting out of here.” Hunter turned his fusion cutter on high and went to work on some rocks. After Hunter got them loosened, Storm came in with his vibro blade and cut away some of the rocks. They didn’t know how far they’d have to cut, but they had a feeling that the wall of crumbled ice rocks was getting thinner. Iota Squad was getting some static on the comm., which was more than they’d received before.

A couple of minutes later Iota Squad started hearing the sound of droids outside of their confine. “Droids, sir,” Hunter informed.

“I’ve got a feeling that they’re gonna try and blast us out of here. We’re going to need to be ready,” Max told his squad, as blaster bolts melted away at the rock from the opposite side. “Get in a defensive position. Once they breach, they’ll want to fight. Let’s dispose of them quickly. Then, we’ll jump out. Storm, have your rocket launcher loaded. Fire at the first turret you see. This could work to our advantage.”

Inside, Hunter held his rifle at the ready, staring down the sights on the point were the blaster bolts were hitting. He was crouched among a pile of rocks. One of the droids shot a rocket at the caved in wall. The rocket made contact with the rock and made a large explosion as it sent rocks and debris inward, at the clones that took refuge inside.

Hunter’s vision was blurred as the dust and rocks flew by him. A few of the rocks dug into his armor. All Hunter could see was a stream of red blaster bolts flying into the cave. There was no aiming involved. Hunter squeezed the trigger and unleashed fire into the opening of the cave.

“Roger that,” Hunter said continuing to shoot at the origins of the red blasts, infiltrating the cave. Suddenly an explosion rocked the outside of the cave. Only a few bolts continued to come. The smoke began to clear and Hunter could see the last few droids, including a downed super battle droid, crawling on the ground. Iota Squad quickly disposed of the rest of the hostiles.

“We don’t have much time. We need to take out their turrets fast, before they get another chance to kill us. Hunter you take a rocket and get ready to feed it into Storm’s rocket launcher,” Max ordered.

“Right, Lead,” Hunter replied, taking a rocket from Storm. He wiped the dust off his visor and starred into the light.

“Flash and I will follow to take out any spare droids. Ready, GO!” Storm dove out of the opening, followed quickly by Hunter, holding his rifle in firing position.

“The first turret is in position. I’m locking on,” Storm said.

“Fire!” Max commanded. Smoke blew out of the back of the rocket launcher, hindering Iota Squad’s view momentarily. The rocket flew straight for the first turret. The turret turned, but the rocket’s path accommodated and swerved right into it, sending smoke and metal shrapnel into the sky.

“We’ve lost Iota Squad,” Commander Spike said into the platoon comm. system.

“Negative, sir. We’re all right,” Max reported.

“I knew that,” Commander Spike said jokingly.

“We’ve still got to take out some turrets while we’re in range.”

“Roger that, Iota. Get on it.” Hunter dropped another missile into Storm’s launcher as the smoke cleared. Iota Squad started running to get a clear shot of the next turret. Iota Squad was back in business.